Process of manufacturing embossed steel-handled implements of steel.



P. W. POWERS.. PROCESS 0F MANUFACTURING EMBOSSED STEEL HANDLED IMPLBMENTS 0F STEEL.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 13, 1911.

Patented Mar. 1,2, 1'912.

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UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIoE.

PATRICK W. POWERS, or NoETI-IAMPTCN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNCE To WILLIAM WILSON LEE, 0E NCETHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS; HELEN LEE. ADMINISTEATRIX 0E SAID WILLIAM WILSQN LEE, DECEASED.

PROCESS 0E MANUEACTIG EMBosSED STEEL-HANDLED IMPLEMENTS oEsTEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 12, 1912.

Application sied June 13, 1911. serial No. ea'asso.

T c all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, PATRICK W. POWERS. citizen of the United States, residing at Northampton, inthe county of Hampshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Manufacturing Embossed Steel- Handled Implements of Steel, of which the following is a specification.'

This invention relates to a process (and its product) of manufacturing embossed steel-handled implements of steel, and more especially table knives and table forks of that description. AI-Ieretofore, such embossed, steel-handled steel implements have been made of a one-piece blank of hardenable steel. Prior to embossing the handles in embossing dies, such blanks, during the' successive steps of the manufacturing process to which they are subjected, have been and are subjected to a steel-hardening prooess that renders the handles unduly hard to raise and iill the embossing dies in suchwise as to receive with desirable distinctness the ornamental pattern or contours of the embossing dies. This is especially true Where finer, as compared with coarser, im-

pressions of the die contours are desired;

and in all cases, such embossing of the hardened handles is unduly destructive of the die contour and also unduly expensive for power required to home the embossing dies on the hardened steel handles.

The object of this invention is to obtain on'the steel handles better impressions of the ornamental contours or configurations of the embossing dies; to make it more practicable to use more richly and iinely cut dies than heretofore; to lengthen the number of years of the embossing dies, which are expensive to make and which become blunted or broken down with undueI rapidity when used on the hardened steel handles; and to economize in the power required in the embossing step.

The product of my new method may be readily produced, with rich and strikingly artistic embossed vornamentation on the handles, at a minimum of factory expense as compared with the older process heretofore and now in use. v

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

welding them together. The handle-forming4 blank is preferably of dead, soft steel-that is, steel that'does not contain carbon and which therefore will not be hardened during any of the subsequentoperations. Usually the inner or opposed ends of' these two blanks are butt-jointed. They are then electrically welded into a single composite blank, the implement-forming portion of which is of hardenable steel and the handleforming portion of which is of very softsteel, as stated. During the welding operation the two assembled portions are pressed strongly together, with the result of form-t ing an upset or flange-like irregular projection 3 around the blank. This projection is ground off in order that t-he one-piece composite blank produced maybe inserted in drop-forging dies. I find in practice that while, as a result of the electrical welding operation, the projection itself is quite hard, yet, on grinding it off, the underlying metal is of substantially its original character, one portion being soft and practically nonhardenable and the other being hardenable, as already indicated.

After the removal of the upsets or projections, the composite blanks are raised to drop-forging heat prior to drop-forging in drop-forging dies. I find in practice, as already stated. that the welding operation does not result in a hardening of the handle portion on the cooling fof the blank, and

nient 2 the drawn blank is then subjected to the action of trimming dies; the blade, fork or implement portion is then subjected to a hardening operation, of Well-known kind (but without any hardening of the handle, by reason of its being of steel Without carbon,); the handle of the blank is nekt rough-ground; the next step is to grind or finish the blade, fork or implement, and the next step is to finish the handle 1 and bolster of the implement. Thelast and final step is that of subjecting the so-treated and otherwise linished implement to pressure in the embossing dies, on the interiors of which patterns of any desired kind may be made. By reason of the fact that the handle is of dead soft or decarbonized steel (of course if the steel handle contained a negligible amount of carbon no objection 'would be presented), it Will readily yield to perfect embossment in the embossing dies When they are compressed upon the handle.

What I claim is The process of making embossed steelhandled knives, forks and other implements of steel, consisting in electrically Welding into one composite blank a` handle-forming piece of substantially decarbonized steel and an implement-forming piece of hardenable steel; in converting said composite blank into the implement desired, leaving the handle-forming piece unhardened; and in embossing the handle in compression-em bossing dies.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my 35 signature in presence of tWo Witnesses.

PATRICK W. POWERS. Witnesses:

ROBERT T. LEE, CHAS. E. CREGAN. 

